Mpumalanga MEC urges communities to protect children with albinism

Pat Ngomane says ‘there is no muti that you can create by killing someone’.

Mpumalanga Community Safety member of the executive council (MEC) Pat Ngomane on Thursday, urged community members to work with the police to protect children living with albinism from attacks.

“These people did not choose to have white skin and they were created by God,” said Ngomane.

“Let us protect our people who are under attack. There are traditional healers out there who heal people, and there are also witches. There is no muti that you can create by killing someone.”

Ngomane was speaking in Hlalanikahle in Mpumalanga at the home of Gabisile Shabane, the 13-year-old girl with albinism who was kidnapped with another child from the same home on January 28, allegedly by three men who entered the house through a broken window.

Her headless body was found buried in a shallow grave in Cullinan, east of Pretoria, in February. The body of 15-year-old boy Nkosikhona Ngwenya was found on the side of the N4 freeway in Mpumalanga in the same week.

Traditional healer Thokozani Msibi, as well as Brilliant Mkhize, Themba Thubane and Knowledge Mhlanga were later arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder. They were denied bail by the Witbank Magistrate’s Court and on Wednesday the case was postponed to August 19, 2019, for trial in the Delmas High Court.

Ngomane also unveiled security upgrades to the Shabane family home, which has also been renovated. The security features include a boundary wall, window and burglar doors as well as four surveillance cameras that were installed on some external corners of the house. He said the security upgrades and the renovations were voluntarily funded by private businesses.

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